On May 20, 1999, a month to the day after the Columbine High School massacre, 15-year-old student Anthony "T.J." Solomon opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle on the Heritage campus, wounding six students. A 15-year-old girl was hospitalized in critical condition, and the other victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Solomon attempted suicide with a revolver but was talked into surrendering by an assistant principal. At the time of the shooting, the PBS series Frontline was in Conyers filming a documentary about an STD outbreak that occurred among Conyers teenagers in 1996. Solomon initially faced up to 351 years of prison if convicted of aggravated assault and other charges,[4] but in 2000 he was found guilty but mentally ill, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 65 years of probation.[5][6] A judge later reduced his sentence from 40 to 20 years. He was released to his mother's house on parole on July 26, 2016.[7][8]
Performing Arts
In July 2014, Heritage High School became an Academy for Performing and Visual Arts, also referred to as the Fine Arts Program. Students accepted into the program are enrolled in one of the following majors:
Vocal Music
Instrumental Music
Dance
Theatre
Technical Theatre
Visual Arts
Theater
Heritage High School's drama department won the Georgia High School Association one act play competition at the 6A level in 2017 and 2018.[9] Also in 2017, they won the Georgia High School Theater Award for Overall Production, for their production of Les Misérables'.[10]
Notable alumni
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(March 2019)
